"Whoa! Pluto's dead," said astronomer Mike Brown, of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, as he watched a Webcast of the vote. "There are finally, officially, eight planets in the solar system." (Mason Inman, National Geographic News)
The tiny, cold and incredibly distant Pluto was discovered by accident in 1930 and long considered to be the ninth planet of our solar system. But after the discoveries of similar intriguing worlds even further out into space, Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet.
The difficult decision comes after many years of collaborating and researching towards creating a scientific definition of the word "planet." The word planet has had no real official definition up to this point
So in what way did Pluto play its role in changing how we know planets today?
What is a dwarf planet?
These are just some of the questions that you will be exploring in this web quest!
Introduction
"Whoa! Pluto's dead," said astronomer Mike Brown, of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, as he watched a Webcast of the vote. "There are finally, officially, eight planets in the solar system." (Mason Inman, National Geographic News)
The tiny, cold and incredibly distant Pluto was discovered by accident in 1930 and long considered to be the ninth planet of our solar system. But after the discoveries of similar intriguing worlds even further out into space, Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet.
The difficult decision comes after many years of collaborating and researching towards creating a scientific definition of the word "planet." The word planet has had no real official definition up to this point